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Nahuatzpan
Nahuatzpan people are a strong and ambitious people ruling the nations of Tikuaxal, Tecxi, Xultec and Mitzal. These nations consist of tribes united under one ruler. The ancient battles of the tribes have not ended because of this, and now often take the form of politics. Warrior training begins at a very young age for the males, with a rigorous regimen of study and exercise. It is not uncommon for a youth, by the time of his sixteenth birthday, to have attained the skills of a warrior. In keeping with their warlike traditions, the Nahuatzpans created the Feathered Wars—the ritual battles between nations, expressly for the purpose of gathering prisoners for sacrifice. 'Appearance' The Nahuatzpan typically stand from 150 cm to 170 cm tall and weigh from 50 kg to 85 kg. Their faces are somewhat angular in appearance, and even adult males are beardless. They have a bronzed brown skin tone, and their hair tends to be dark colors ranging from brown to black. Brown eyes are very common, but green eyes occur from time to time as well. Due to the humid environment of their homelands they wear very little clothes. Commoner males wear just a loincloth, and females wear just a little more to cover their breasts. Higher ranking members of the society wear light colorful tunics or gowns. For war and ceremonial purposes they use very colorful garments adorned with colored feathers, as well as skin from jaguars. They also paint their bodies and faces with elaborate patterns often using black, white and blue colors. 'Nations' The Nahuatzpan people are divided into four countries: The theocracy of Tikuaxal, the republic of Mitzal, the republic of Tecxi and the autocracy of Xultec. All four countries are in the vast jungles north of the Mixtlitepetl Mountains, which makes agriculture somewhat of a challenge. 'Tikuaxal' The high priest Ilpochi is the ruler of Tikuaxal and has his seat in the capital of Chixcul 'Culture' The royal house of each city is the center of the society, with the whole city functioning like an enormous royal household. The royal family is also the source of social, moral and cosmic order, and family ties in general mean a lot in the Nahuatzpan society. Children of the family help their elders and are expected to take care of themselves after they turn 15 years. At this time an important public ceremony takes place to celebrate the coming of age and the readiness for marriage. The parents and other adults of the family are expected to teach the children everyday knowledge, so they are able to take care of themselves. The elders of the family are to be respected and are often consulted when making big decisions. 'Pokatok' ' '''Another significant part of the Nahuatzpan culture is unique ball game called Pokatok. On the surface this game seems to be about entertainment, contest and sport, but it is much more important than just that. It also serves as a religious ritual and means of solving disputes. The game is played with a hard, round ball with a weight of around 9lbs (4 kg), made from the congealed product of the rubber tree. Two teams consisting of 5+ players play against each other in an I-shaped ball court with sloping sides, often fit with a goal ring, and players normally wear a loincloth with leather hip pads for protection. The heavy ball is lethal if a player is hit in the stomach or head, and can inflict other serious injuries. A match consists of 3 games, and a game is won either by reaching 8 points or shooting the ball through the goal ring - the latter being very prestigious as the whole in the goal ring is only a bit larger than the ball itself. The game is about keeping the ball in play and in bounds, which is by no means an easy task. A team scores a point if a player of the opposing team hits the ball out of turn (the ball has to bounce between teams with each bounce), misses the ball, knocks the ball out of bounds, touches the ball with the hands or any other body part except the hips, and accidentally touches a team mate. 'Architecture and urban design' Most Nahuatzpan cities have had little planning when first constructed and have often integrated natural features. At the heart of any Nahuatzpan city is the most valued governmental and religious building including royal housing, pyramid temples, ball court and grand plazas. These buildings are aligned with the cardinal points. Connected by pathways and platforms are then the lesser nobles' housing, smaller temple and shrines, and at the outskirts of the city are the common folks housing. Limestone is used for most buildings, even some common houses, and all buildings are built on a foundation of limestone. Much attention is given to the outside of buildings, which are decorated with relief continuing uninterrupted around the entire structure, the artwork pertaining to the inhabitants or the purpose of the building. These reliefs are often painted in strong colors. Unique to the Nahuatzpan cities are the great use of pyramids. These are not only used as places of ritual in honor of the gods, but also as a resting place for the dead as well as observatories and places of studying magic. The size and details of these pyramids can vary a lot. The greater and more elaborate the pyramid, the more important a role it has in the society. 'Religion' ''Nahuatzpan pantheon and myths The Nahuatzpan religion is very ritualistic in nature with many festivals throughout the year. Festivals and rituals take place in the great plazas in the cities or near shrines in the wilderness - mountains, natural wells and caves being the most important places. The location is predetermined based on the specific festival or ritual as well as the specific day and time. Purification, often in the form of fasting and bathing, is always done before rituals and entering the homes of deities. Offerings are presented to the gods on a regular basis and function as a way for mortals to establish or renew contracts or pacts with the gods. This includes fertility, safe childbirth, illness, changes of season and much more. Offerings are often maize, maize breads, cacao, honey, flowers, incense and figurines. Everything about an offering is predetermined - the choice of the offering, the amount, the way of preparation and the arrangement of the offering. Sacrifices are only used for greater things, often concerning the nobles or the people as a whole. The sacrifice normally consists of animals, though human slaves or prisoners are sacrificed on exceptional occasions such as accession to the throne, severe illness of the ruler, a royal burial and drought. Priests of the Nahuatzpan gods often have specialized roles each and work together. Some priests are in charge of preparing and leading the many rituals throughout the year, while others are occupied with astronomy, astrology and the sacred calendar. A part of the priesthood is record keepers, whose main assignment is to write down the history of their people and the great doings of their ruler. 'Technology and magic' Most tools and weapons are made of stone, especially flint and obsidian, due to the lack of iron. 'Language and writing' The language spoken by the Nahuatzpan people is called Nahuatzpan and is very different from other human languages. The written language is a very complex one consisting of logo-grams (to express meaning) and phonetic symbols (to denote sound values) of which more than 200 exists depicting humans, animals, super naturals, objects and abstract designs. These unique signs, also called glyphs, are used to write words, phrases and sentences, and all the Nahuatzpan can say can be written with these glyphs. With this complex writing system most things can and often is written in several different ways - sometimes for functionality, sometimes for aesthetic purposes. {C} At first glimpse the Nahuatzpan glyphs are squared and written in a grid like pattern, but each square actually consists of 1-5 glyphs, often forming a word or even a phrase. Reading the glyphs is also rather complex as they are written in paired columns, meaning that the first glyph to be read is the top left, the second is to the right of the first, the third is under the first, the fourth under the second and so forth. Scribes hold a very important position in the Nahuatzpan society as not many master this intricate writing system. 'Numerical system' The Nahuatzpan use a base-twenty numerical system, which only include whole numbers and is used for simple counting operations. A dot is used to represent 1 and a bar represents 5. Numbers from 6 to 19 are combined of dots and bars. A shell is used to represent 0. Numbers can be written both horizontally and vertically. The value of a number depends on its position going from the bottom line upward in the configuration. The initial position (the bottom line) has the value represented in the symbol. On the following line, the value of the symbol is multiplied by 20; on the third line from the bottom it's multiplied by 400, and each successive line is growing by powers of 20. This positional system allows you to calculate large figures, necessary for chronology and astronomy. 'Calendar' The Ypprisian use two calendars - Tzolkin, the 260-days long ritual calendar, and Haab, the 365-days solar calendar. Together they go through a complete cycle called the Calendar Round consisting of 52 Haabs. As the Calendar Round resets after roughly a lifetime, another calendar called the Long Count is used to track longer periods of time. The Long Count is the calendar used for the inscription of calendar dates (i.e. identifying when one event occurred in relation to others). The '''Tzolkin '''calendar combines a cycle of twenty named days with another cycle of thirteen numbers, to produce 260 unique days (i.e., 20 × 13 = 260). Each successive named day is numbered from 1 up to 13 and then starting again at 1. There is 20 individual named days. The '''Tzolkin '''is mainly used to determine worship and when it is a favourable time for certain things. For instance, a low-numbered Akbal or Ben would be a good day for a wedding, whereas Kan would be a good day for building or maintaining a house. Each cycle of 13 days also corresponds to a particular deity as seen below. The '''Haab '''comprises eighteen "months" of twenty days each, plus an additional period of five days ("nameless days") at the end of the year known as Wayeb. The twenty days of each "month" is given a number from 0 to 19, where the first day of the "month" (day 0) is known as the "seating of". The first day of the year is Seating Pop. This is followed by 1 Pop, 2 Pop ... 19 Pop, Seating Wo, 1 Wo and so on. The five nameless days at the end of the calendar called Wayeb are a dangerous time. During Wayeb, portals between the mortal realm and the Underworld dissolve. No boundaries prevent the ill-intending deities from causing disasters. To ward off these evil spirits, the Ypprisian has customs and rituals they practice during Waye'. For example, people avoid leaving their houses or washing or combing their hair. The Long Count calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from the Ypprisian creation date (set around 4730 years ago). They days are tallied in a modified base-20 scheme, and each date is composed of 5 numbers - the current date being 11.19.18.7.9. The first number is the amount of Baktuns since the creation date, the second number is the amount of Katuns, the third number is the amount Tuns, the fourth number is the amount of Winals (months) and the fifth number is the amount of Kin (days). The Long Count is reset after the end of the 13th Baktun (The last day of the 13th Baktun would then be 13.0.0.0.0), and this is referred to in myths as the "end of an age". Category:Race Category:Culture Category:Player character